Non-monk unarmed fighter

[Greybar]

Oh wise ones of ENWorld, I've got a character idea I need help with the mechanics for, particularly since I seem to be bad at figuring out ways to have characters who can deal a lot of damage.

The concept is a wild fighter-type, a defender of the roads and common people. I'm envisioning him as being a bare-hands type fighter, but his nature really doesn't match monk (i.e chaotic). It would be okay if he or his hands transformed in some way along natural seeming lines.

Complications from the setting (Chinese inspired setting)
* Metal armor is rare, so AC will be a problem
* Psionics effectively not available (so none of the claw powers)
* Race needs to be human or able to pass for human

ECL 9
For planning purposes thinking of a standard 25-pt array, though eventually I'd roll for stats.

I was thinking along one of two lines:
* Barbarian/Fighter
Pro: use bonus feats for things like Weapon Specialization (unarmed), Superior Unarmed Strike
Con: hard to get a halfway decent AC
Gets up to something like: +11/+6 1d8+7 plus +11 1d8+3 for a full attack with Snap Kick going.

* Barbarian/Swordsage -
Pro: Wis bonus for AC, damage, etc.
Con: Lower BAB, multiple attribute dependency, many blade magic manuevers do seem to focus on actually having a weapon
Has a much worse time hitting and doing damage,


Another long shot would be the whole Bear Warrior / Warshaper sequence, but it starts to stray from the concept if he shapeshifts to fight.

The shifter race from Eberron looked interesting, but only being able to Shift 1/day seems to pretty much kill building a fighter on that concept.

Is there any good way to build a bare-hand/claw fighter given all these restrictions, or should I give up and just have him swing a greatclub around?

 

[Dice4Hire]

It is doable, but may not be optimal.

If I were to do this, with the restrictions you described, I would go ninja. They get wisdom to AC, and some good abilities, like the invisible step, which is priceless.

For unarmed damage, go Improved unarmed strike like you said and Improved natural attack from MMI if you DM will not laugh at you. With those you will have decent damage.

AC will be a problem if you want to go unarmed as the game is just plain not built for that. However, the good news is that everyone should be in the same boat, sop you won't have to worry too much about a medium BAB, if ACs are low. If so, Power attack looks better and better

But I would go ninja 1/scout x for the AC and damage combo. Wis to AC, scout to AC, a nice dex to AC, and dodge and you will at least not get hurt all the time. If you can fit in Spring attack, it is excellent to make sure you do not take full attacks form your opponents

 

[Tetsubo]

Do you have access to the Dragon Compendium? There is the Battle Dancer in it that does improved unarmed attack damage and is geared towards light armour...

 

[UltimaGabe]

There's a feat in the Tome of Battle that, if I'm not mistaken, grants you a progressively increasing unarmed damage, at about half the speed of the monk's increase. So, by 4th level, you're dealing 1d6 with your unarmed strikes, which increases to 1d8 and then 1d10 or something like that. I'd check it out if I were you.

Of course, if it were me, I'd just try to convince my DM to let me play a Chaotic Monk.

 

[Enforcer]

I'd go Swordsage, using the unarmed variant listed in the Adaptation paragraph for that class. Basically, you get Monk unarmed damage (and Improved Unarmed Strike) in exchange for the ability to wear armor.

You'll still have the Wis bonus to AC, but you'll probably want to get some maneuvers that bump AC or allow you to negate attacks. Unfortunately, Wall of Blades from Iron Heart isn't a Swordsage discipline.

Regarding Tome of Battle requiring weapons, can you point to a specific rule that says you can't do maneuvers unarmed? A few of the styles even have "unarmed" as a preferred weapon (Setting Sun, Shadow Hand, Tiger Claw to just name ones off the top of my head).

If you choose something besides Swordsage, at least you can get Improved Unarmed Strike and the Superior Unarmed Strike feat (from Tome of Battle) to up your damage output. Which I believe you noted above.

Also consider the various Ascetic _______ feats from Complete Adventurer (and Ascetic Stalker from Complete Scoundrel). They're designed to let you dip in Monk for unarmed combat reasons, but yet still progress in another class as your main focus.

Finally, realize that you can't have it all. There's no unarmed fighter that can have high damage, high BAB, high AC, etc. You'll have to make some tradeoffs.

 

[udalrich]

I believe that Eberron and a few other books have shifter feats. They do something to improve your shifting, and I believe that they also give you an extra shift per day. Some of them seemed worthwhile; others less so. (I haven't played a shifter, so I'm just basing this on reading the descriptions.) If not, Extra Shifting either exists somewhere or is a reasonable feat. (I'd base it on extra rage if you need to create it.)

One of the ToB disciplines has unarmed strike among it's favored weapons, so there should be several maneuvers that are good for an unarmed fighter. If not, talk to your GM. It's probably reasonable to let the maneuvers that are supposed to only work with weapons to work with an unarmed strike, especially if you're not a monk.

 

[Arkhandus]

Warblade class from the Tome of Battle, focusing primarily on maneuvers from the Tiger Claw discipline, and taking the Superior Unarmed Strike feat from that same book.

 

[Greybar]

Hmm... maybe I'll look at Warblade with a touch of Barbarian get the natural/wild side. I can't remember right now why I was thinking more about Swordsage/Barbarian... maybe I got too distracted by the prospect of the Wis bonus to AC.

Also, I'll bounce the Swordsage "Adaptation" as listed in the book off of the GM.

At least the various "Leap of..." Tiger Claw strikes offer a damage bonus, which is the part it always seems I can't get much of.

Thanks to everyone with comments (and not to discourage more by any means).

A lot will probably rely on what stats I get around to rolling, since that will inform the MAD type class decisions. If I only have two high stats then I'll have to go simpler, but if I have three or so I can stretch out to the options that use Wis, etc. All this thinking is part thought-exercise, and part replacement character planning in case my paladin bites it in the big fight coming this Sunday ... he's on a string of bad luck, lost his good sword, and is likely to feel a moral need to plunge into the middle of much badness in an attempt to overcome the BBEG...

 

[Dagredhel]

Been there: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=200364.

(The link is to a thread with a Human Bear Totem Barbarian 2/Fighter 2/Bear Totem Barbarian 3/Bear Warrior 5/Warshaper 3/Bear Warrior 5 build that leverages the "City Brawler" alternate class abilities from Dragon Magazine #349 and the Bear Totem Warrior variant from Unearthed Arcana.)

 

[Winding Road]

If you're looking at both swordsage and shifter as options, there is a 5-level PrC in Bo9S for shifters based around the Tiger Fang school. I don't have my book in front of me, but I think it gives you extra shifting as well as some special abilities with the Tiger Fang maneuvers.